Hello again! I welcome you back to the light after spending the last week (or more) with your head stuck in the books, much in the same way an ostrich sticks his head in the ground. I’m looking forward to seeing your sans-fatigué(e) faces on Monday morning as I assume that you spent most of your weekend sleeping.
Unlike all of you, I spent the majority of my weekend putting this majestic paper together for all of you to peruse through (or complete the crossword) thereby forsaking the sleep that I desperately needed. If you think I am complaining, don’t get me wrong; I signed up for this gig fully knowing what I was getting myself into, thereby understanding that I would need to lose the necessary amount of shut-eye to keep this publication going. For the most part, that has been the state of affairs as far as my lifestyle is concerned; take on some project, lose some much needed shut-eye, and finish the project.
I’m going to regret this later, but sometimes, I wish I was a vampire from Twilight (*cringe*) just so I don’t have to be reliant on the kind of R&R that consumes a third of the average lifetime (if you get eight hours on average, everyday). However, as an engineering student, I’m sure you’re used to getting only four or five hours of sleep a night in order to get things done.
While you may grumble and groan about the lack of sleep you get because of your choice to become a Waterloo Engineering student (which you are now regretting after midterms), I lament my lack of sleep due to something else. As it’s customary to share a story in all my editorials, here’s the installment for this issue: Since the age of eight, I’ve suffered from some form of insomnia that is still a part of my life today; the end; I know, it’s more of a statement than a story but bear with me. After taking some time to ask experts and peers about their respective sleep cycles, I also found that I happen to have a very irregular sleep cycle compared to the average human being.
The average human sleep cycle consists of two stages: non-REM and REM sleep. The majority of your sleep cycle is spent in the former stage of which it consists of three sub-stages. The first is your transition to sleep which lasts about five to ten minutes. This sub-stage is characterized by your eyes moving slowly under your eyelid and slowed muscle activity. If you’ve ever felt your eyes drooping during an exceedingly boring class (or professor), you’ll find that the symptoms mentioned previously are true to the point that you can’t hold your own head up and that you’re easily awakened (hence the exceedingly funny head-bobbing action). The next stage consists of period of light sleep that can last from ten minutes to half an hour in length. Body movement usually stops, your heart rate slows down and your body temperature usually decreases. The feeling of falling or spinning on your bed when you’re just about to go under is a really good way to characterize this stage of sleep. The final stage in non-REM sleep is, arguably, the most important – deep sleep. This sleep is characterized by the slow brain wave activity and blood flow away from the brain thus restoring physical health to the rest of the body.
On the other hand, for cognitive function, REM sleep is essential and is most popularly known as the cycle in which your eyes move very quickly (hence the name, rapid eye movement, to denote this stage). You also have an elevated heart rate and blood pressure whereas you arms and legs are in a paralyzed state. More importantly, REM sleep is known for dreaming as well as memory retention and learning. For instance, your brain often consolidates the information you’ve acquired during the day and commits them to long-term memory in this stage.
On average, an entire cycle starting from the non-REM cycle to the REM cycle lasts an hour and a half. In accordance to most studies, most people should aim to have eight to nine hours of sleep a night.
However, given the circumstances, we can only dream (see what I did there?) to have that kind of time to spend it sleeping. In my case, that’s even more elusive given the “condition” I currently suffer from. In my case, besides my inability to actually fall asleep, my sleep cycle does not follow the conventional one just stated. For instance, I’m a very light sleeper hence the lack of non-REM sleep I get on a daily basis. For however much non-REM sleep I do get, after visiting a sleep clinic, it was found that my brain wave activity was unusually high even in deep sleep. In addition, while most people can’t remember most of their dreams, I have the ability to dream for extended periods of time and can remember at least two of the dreams I’ve had the night before. Finally, it was found that I can’t follow through with more than four cycles of sleep before waking up.
Over time, I’ve come up with a couple of tricks to assist the perpetually sleep-deprived (being me) that is very applicable to the average droopy-eyed engineer. For one, if you are in sleep debt, don’t pay it all off on a bed-ridden weekend. It’s much better to pay it off over long periods of time by adding an hour or two to your scheduled sleepy fun-time. If have found yourself not getting more than seven hours of sleep, plan to sleep for a time period that is a multiple of 1.5 hours. This ensures that you wake up when you’re at the end of a cycle and are at your most awake state; getting an extra half an hour or hour of sleep does not help you in the slightest and would leave you just as groggy as you were with less sleep. If you’re really sleepy and you really need that power nap, don’t sleep for more than an hour otherwise, that extra sleep time will ultimately screw up your sleep cycle even more. If you’re anything like me where you can’t get sleep for more than six hours a night, I recommend you keep a log of the times you sleep best and try to schedule one or two (if you can) naps that have a strict 1.5 hour interval. Contrary to popular belief, you don’t actually need eight consecutive hours to constitute a “good night’s sleep.” With that said, if sleep is a real issue for you, I would suggest that keeping a log like I mentioned and sticking to a strict routine for napping, you can still wake up refreshed even if you get less than six hours of sleep.
In addition to scheduling, it is important to find the environmental conditions that provide you the best sleep you can possibly get. For me, I found that a set ritual before bed inadvertently signaled my body to start shutting down. For instance, having a light snack (usually chocolate milk or nuts), taking a shower, and reading a book in bed, in that order, usually puts me to sleep within twenty minutes of starting to read. If I were to check my emails in between this routine or did that instead of reading, I found that I’d be awake for at least an hour and half after I’m under the covers. Also, conditions like complete silence and darkness and a certain room temperature make a huge difference to the quality of sleep I get. For anyone requiring tips on getting enough sleep, regardless whether you are up because of an assignment or not, feel free to talk to me about the methods I’ve used to improve the quality of sleep I get.
As a special note, I highly recommend that you adhere to a strict sleeping schedule during exams especially because this is the time when the average sleeping cycle of an engineering student is heavily skewed. This could be detrimental to exam writing because your brain tends to rest in the state you were in come time to write your exam. Therefore, if you have an exam at 9AM, then you’ll find that your performance will suffer because your brain is operating in “sleep” mode if you were sleeping at that time prior to exam day.
Before I go, I should note that I have been doing a terrible job of keeping up with my sleep schedule and have written this entire editorial in a sleep deprived state; you should probably take everything I say with a grain of salt. With that I’m signing off and I wish you a relaxing and sleep-filled week!
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